Should I use Calendar.compareTo() to compare dates?

Question

Is it a valid way of comparing dates:

Calendar someCalendar1 = Calendar.getInstance(); // current date/time
someCalendar1.add(Calendar.DATE, -14);

Calendar some         


        

Answer 1

It's OK. Also you can use before() and after():

package demo.so;

import java.util.Date;
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;

public class Tester {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

    Calendar someCalendar1 = Calendar.getInstance(); // current date/time
    someCalendar1.add(Calendar.DATE, -11);

    DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
    Date someDate =   df.parse("10/08/2009");

    Calendar someCalendar2 = Calendar.getInstance();
    someCalendar2.setTime(someDate);

    String cal1 = df.format(someCalendar1.getTime());
    String cal2 = df.format(someCalendar2.getTime());

    if (someCalendar1.equals(someCalendar2))
        System.out.println( cal1 + " is the same as " + cal2);
    if (someCalendar1.after(someCalendar2))
        System.out.println(cal1 + " is after " + cal2);
    if (someCalendar1.before(someCalendar2))
        System.out.println(cal1 + " is before " + cal2);

    }

}

But you shouldn't use Date, is deprecated and a source of troubles with dates handling. Build your own wrapper for GregorianCalendar or use some good library, like Joda.